Advice on a workhorse desktop build for heavy in-memory work

indigene · Jul 23, 2017

I do analytical modelling. My work requires very heavy in-memory work. File storage, streaming, video acceleration are not critical for me. Not an always on system, but long hours with heavy computing spikes.

I am seeking configuration recommendations for such a desktop workhorse.

Please advice me on all components: RAM, motherboard, chipset/processor, hard drive, cooling, box, etc.

I am in India, will order most components online (amazon) and have kept my budget flexible but capped at ~ ₹100,000 (approx.$1560)

King Dranzer · Aug 9, 2017

What software you use. Please give us full list of software you use from most to least important.

indigene · Aug 9, 2017

Singular most important tool is MS Excel with a few data analysis plugins: Solver, PowerPivot, Analysis Toolpak, etc.

Tableau Desktop
Chrome/TOR
Other office tools

I work on a dual-boot Windows 10 & (K)Ubuntu 16.04.

King Dranzer · Aug 9, 2017

Do you also wanna do some gaming

indigene · Aug 9, 2017

King Dranzer · Aug 9, 2017

Here is the list:

CPU: Intel i7-7700 (INR25,990)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H (INR7,790)
RAM: HyperX FURY Black 16GB Kit (2x8GB) 2133MHz (INR13,000)
GPU: MSI GRAPHICS CARD PASCAL SERIES - GTX 1050 TI 4GB GDDR5 OCV1 (INR12,350)
SSD: Samsung 960 EVO Series - 500GB PCIe NVMe (INR20,100)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 3TB Disk (INR7,650)
PSU: Seasonic M12II Series 520W (INR6,700)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 200R (INR5,670)

Total: INR99,250

indigene · Aug 10, 2017

Thanks @King Dranzer

Have been working with 16Gb (2X8Gb) RAM on a i5-3450 @3.10Ghz - and even running Pivot tables on a million rows gets hung many times. I have more resource heavy tools like Solver.

Would a full utilization of 64GB (4X16GB DDR4) on some of the motherboards like the Z270/H270 be better for heavy computations?

Also, does an i7-7700 work better on a Z270/H270 or a B250M? Since you mentioned M, is the preference of microATX over ATX based on cost?

I have a couple of HDD from my old system (2TB+) and I wonder if I need a graphics card for the Excel work i do. Should I save on the expense on these two and instead put more on the atx and RAM?

If I do go for the Z270/H270 i7-7700 with a max RAM, will the Corsair be good enough to cool - specially during overclocking?

King Dranzer · Aug 10, 2017

Here is the list:

CPU: Intel i7-7700 (INR25,990)
Motherboard: ASUS MOTHERBOARD PRIME B250-PLUS (INR8,320)
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (INR22,100 x 2 = INR44,200)
SSD: SAMSUNG INTERNAL 2.5-INCH SATA 3.0 SSD 850 EVO 500GB (INR13,200)
PSU: Seasonic M12II Series 520W (INR6,700)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 200R (INR5,670)

Total: INR104,080

King Dranzer · Aug 10, 2017

That should solve all your problems. 64GB RAM.

There is no big difference when you go from B250 to H270 but there is difference when you go from B250/H270 to Z270 that is the ability to overclock which you don't require. Besides that no big difference.

Same number of SATA 6GB/s ports. All support 64GB RAM.

Lucky_SLS · Aug 11, 2017

A quad channel memory support with a more powerful cpu can maybe benefit ur work type

Cpu http://www.amazon.in/gp/aw/d/B01FJLAITC/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502431208&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX118_SY170_QL70&keywords=Intel+6850&dpPl=1&dpID=518PebG%2BkzL&ref=plSrch 35k
Mobo https://www.mdcomputers.in/intel-platform/asus-x99-m-ws-se.html 20k
Cooler http://www.amazon.in/gp/aw/d/B00G9YBHEY/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1502431376&sr=8-8&pi=AC_SX118_SY170_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=Mugen&dpPl=1&dpID=51EJkNgXRnL&ref=plSrch 6k
And I think you can salvage ur old ddr4 rams and add another 16gigs. U can also use ur case and hdd.
Add in the psu and ssd with the ram, cpu and mobo and u r done.
U have to set custom ram timings in bios since the 2 sets of 16gigs will be mismatched.

King Dranzer · Aug 11, 2017

Lucky_SLS :

I don't think that extra cores will help. Please check the OP requirements and confirm it, and if possible short explanation will be good on how the more cores will improve performance.

Lucky_SLS · Aug 11, 2017

He uses analytic tools and solvers which tend to be cpu heavy. I use Ansys for non linear analysis and it's cpu and memory intensive. So I figured that's the case.

King Dranzer · Aug 11, 2017

Lucky_SLS :

hmmm then Ryzen would be better

Lucky_SLS · Aug 11, 2017

U have quad channel support with 6850k

King Dranzer · Aug 11, 2017

Here is the list:

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 SERIES OCTA CORE PROCESSOR 1700 (INR24,800)
Motherboard: ASUS MOTHERBOARD PRIME B350-PLUS (INR8,000)
RAM: CORSAIR DESKTOP RAM VENGEANCE LPX SERIES - 16GB (16GBx1) DDR4 DRAM 3000MHz (INR10,970 x 4 = INR43,880)
SSD: SAMSUNG INTERNAL 2.5-INCH SATA 3.0 SSD 850 EVO 500GB (INR13,200)
PSU: Seasonic M12II Series 520W (INR6,700)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 200R (INR5,670)

Total: INR102,250

King Dranzer · Aug 11, 2017

Lucky_SLS :

definitely but will 128GB be utilized. And If I go X99 way then the price goes up. Still let me check one last time if going for X99 is possible for given budget.

King Dranzer · Aug 11, 2017

Tried but X99 path is not worth it. Because costly CPU+MOBO and GPU required. Unless OP wants and practically can utilize 128GB it is not worth spending on.

indigene · Aug 30, 2017

Excel distributes computations over multi processors. I have a lot of computations in excel that tend to get 'volatile" at times. Does having more cores address this?

Also, sorry my bad about GPU - but it seems GPU is not necessarily for gaming/video but can also augment CPU for heavy computations, right?

Lucky_SLS · Aug 30, 2017

both ur points depends on the softwares u use. like i said, u can set no. of cores to be used in ansys and quad channel memory helps too. as far as i know excel doesnt impliment multi channel work process. its pretty basic. but what abt ur plugins? do they have such options? its the same for gpu, ansys, sony vegas, and premier pro utilities nvidia cuda acceleration. do u have those options too?

King Dranzer · Aug 30, 2017

Lucky_SLS :

Not only production work like premie pro vegas etc but even basic software like Publisher and Excel utilizes GPU to some extent to decrease the load on CPU. But depending on work OP does he does utilize more number of cores as his Excel distributes workload to multiple cores for continuous calculations and changes in database. For that he needs dedicated workstation with decent enough storage for big database entries and multiple cores(EPYC or Xeon) But trust me that would be overkill for any means of workload unless it is for business setup in which the setup is calculated under the capital investment and not the personal expenditure.(Don't know why I am going into economics consider it off topic)

For OP I would recommend the Ryzen R7 as it is personal build and is only possible option in his budget. X99 is costlier because of motherboard and suitable Xeon or i7 processor is lot costlier than Ryzen R7. EPYC and XEON v5 are bit far to launch. Waiting for them is not recommended.

Lucky_SLS · Aug 30, 2017

about the gpu, u r partly true. not all softwares use gpu cores for calculations. ansys still doesnt support radeon gpu for calculations. and iirc, the older versions of vegas also supported only cuda acceleration. only the latest supports radeon cuz of opengl i think.

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